Chapter 6: Resource Allocation

“Everyone, stop arguing for a second and listen to me.”

“I think everyone has a point, and it was my oversight. Look, we need a place to rest for the night, and we need to find a water source. Since that’s the case, why don’t we split into two groups?”

Shisan looked at the young man beside him, Xiaoyang, and said, “Xiaoyang, you come with me. Anyone else who feels they have the stamina, join us. The three of us will form a team to search for water.”

“On the other hand, Xueqin, you take the lead for the rest. Head back the way we came to the beach where we landed and set up a temporary camp. Gather some firewood and get a fire going. The temperature difference between day and night here is huge; we won’t make it without a fire. What do you all think?”

It was a compromise, and one that everyone found relatively acceptable.

Those who were already exhausted from walking and wanted to rest breathed a sigh of relief.

If they had kept walking without a clear goal in sight, they felt they might have actually broken down.

The only question was: who would join the water search party?

The remaining eight people fell silent for a moment. Finally, one of the fitness bloggers stepped forward. “I’ll do it.”

No one objected.

And so, the ten-person team split into two groups and began moving in different directions.

After the recent argument, the atmosphere in both groups was somewhat somber.

Anxiety permeated the hearts of every member.

It was only the first day of survival, and such a conflict had already erupted. With a month still ahead of them, no one could predict what might happen next.

The future looked grim.

Meanwhile, compared to the chaotic mess and bickering on their side, things with Qiao Yitong were the picture of peace and tranquility.

The firelight reflected on the faces of Qiao Yitong and Lu Cheng, casting a soft, warm glow.

The campfire crackled occasionally, sounding like the focused white noise people use in daily life, bringing a sense of calm.

The dangers the netizens had imagined never materialized.

The night passed quietly, spent with Lu Cheng in a deep slumber and Qiao Yitong sitting in meditative cultivation.

In the early morning, when the first rays of sunlight filtered through the cracks in the stone walls and fell upon them, Lu Cheng finally blinked his eyes open.

The first things he saw were the remains of the campfire and Qiao Yitong sitting across from it.

Lu Cheng dazed for a moment before suddenly realizing that he wasn’t lounging at home, but participating in a high-risk survival variety show in the wilderness.

But how did he fall asleep? And so deeply!

He hadn’t dreamed at all throughout the night; in fact, he felt completely comfortable and refreshed!

Was it because he was too tired from the day before?

Lu Cheng could only settle on that reason. He had no way of knowing that the reason he slept so well was because Qiao Yitong had been cultivating the entire time. The purest energy of nature had gathered around her, and Lu Cheng had simply benefited from the overflow.

Wrapped in the gentle, inclusive energy of nature, his exhaustion and anxiety had been washed away, naturally leading to a deep sleep.

Once he fully came to his senses, Lu Cheng looked at Qiao Yitong with a hint of guilt.

He had been so focused on his own sweet dreams that he hadn’t looked out for Qiao Yitong at all.

Just then, Qiao Yitong finished her cultivation and opened her eyes.

As the first light of dawn hit her, the Spiritual Qi she had cultivated all night finally condensed into a tiny drop, landing in the center of her Sea of Consciousness.

Compared to her Sea of Consciousness in the past, this tiny drop of Spiritual Power was like a single drop of water compared to a vast ocean.

In her previous life, she might not have even spared it a glance.

But now, this single drop of Spiritual Power was enough to ensure she lived comfortably on this island.

Qiao Yitong anchored the Spiritual Power in the center of her Sea of Consciousness, letting it rotate on its own in a specific rhythm to actively absorb surrounding energy and grow.

Having finished this, she looked up at Lu Cheng.

“Awake? Let’s go,” she said, already standing up.

After spending a day together, Lu Cheng had grown used to Qiao Yitong’s man-of-few-words attitude. He stood up and asked with concern, “Sister Tong, why didn’t you wake me up last night? Did you not rest at all?”

“I rested,” Qiao Yitong replied.

Lu Cheng still felt a bit embarrassed. He was a man, yet he was being looked after by Qiao Yitong.

Driven by a desire to compensate, he once again pulled a bottle of water and a pack of Compressed Biscuits¹ from his backpack and handed them to her. “Sister Tong, eat something before we head out, or your blood sugar might drop.”

Qiao Yitong reached out and took them naturally.

In the Wasteland, food and water were certainly precious, but it would only take half a day. Once they reached the beach on the other side of Area A and set up camp, the rest would involve simply gathering the inexhaustible food resources the island had to offer.

The two of them ate and drank their fill, then packed up to set out again.

This left a crowd of netizens in the Live Stream Room erupting in judgment and anger.

“Wait, what? You didn’t keep watch at all, you just slept all night, so how do you have the face to keep taking Lu Cheng’s food?”

“This Lu Cheng is a pure idiot. She didn’t do a thing and he’s still sharing his stuff. Just wait until you both run out of food, then you can both stand there and eat the wind² for all I care.”

“I knew it from the start. That Qiao Yitong has no skills of her own, she just knows how to seduce men and use their resources. Look, a textbook example right here!”

…

With a clear goal in mind, Qiao Yitong led Lu Cheng toward their planned destination.

Meanwhile, on the other side with the remaining ten people led by Shisan.

A new day brought a new mess.

As the first rays of morning sunlight hit them, a furious voice pierced through everyone’s eardrums, waking those who were still fast asleep.

“Where’s my canned food? Who took my canned food!” The influencer Ding Yao’s angry voice rang in everyone’s ears.

Everyone looked over, watching the red-faced, frantic Ding Yao, then looked at each other in confusion.

“Over here, over here.” A thin, small young man stepped forward, still chewing on something. His voice was muffled as he spoke. “I was a bit dizzy from hunger this morning, so I got up early to eat a bit.”

Ding Yao looked at the can. The canned meat had been opened, and half the meat inside was gone.

Ding Yao instantly snapped.

“If you’re hungry, eat your own food! What right do you have to take my canned food without my permission!”

In this environment, the value of a single can of meat was self-evident.

Moreover, this was something he had spent a fortune on to rig the voting before entering the variety show. Even with all that spending, his final ranking had only granted him two cans of meat!

Those two cans were undoubtedly his lifeline for surviving a month in this place.

He had already planned it out: he would open one on the eleventh day and the other on the twenty-first.

And now, something he couldn’t even bring himself to eat was being mindlessly cracked open and devoured by someone else. How could he not have a breakdown?

To make matters worse, the man seemed completely indifferent. “Didn’t we agree earlier that we’d share resources? Since I ate your canned food, you can obviously eat my stuff too. Besides, I didn’t even finish it. I specifically left more than half for you.”

Ding Yao’s eyes were red with rage. He glared at the man and spat, “You don’t have a damn thing to share! This is just theft. You’re too incompetent to get your own supplies, so you sneak around eating everyone else’s.”

“That’s a bit harsh. Our supplies were fixed when we arrived on the island, meant to sustain us through these first few days when we have nothing. Once we get used to the island, we’ll definitely find new food. When that time comes, I dare you not to touch what I find,” the scrawny man retorted.

He spoke as if he actually intended to look for food later.

Ding Yao was almost driven to laughter by the sheer absurdity of it. When the scrawny man tried to hand over the remaining half-can, Ding Yao threw a punch.

The scrawny man hadn’t expected Ding Yao to lash out so suddenly. Stunned by the pain for a split second, he quickly flared up in a rage, and the two began brawling on the spot.

This sudden turn of events caught everyone off guard. They rushed forward in a chaotic scramble to pull the two men apart.

In the middle of the struggle, someone accidentally kicked the fire. The carefully built bonfire collapsed instantly, and several burning logs tumbled onto the sand, their flames quickly extinguished.

Nearby, Shisan had just woken up. His eyelid twitched at the sight, and he rushed over almost immediately to save the embers.

“Have you all had enough!” Shisan roared at the brawling group, brandishing a wooden stick that still held a flickering flame.

He was fed up!

It had been like this since yesterday. Did none of them understand their current situation?

He had already been annoyed when people started backing out while they were searching for a water source. He had sent most of them back to the base to start a fire while he took two others to keep searching.

After a grueling half-day of searching, he had returned to the meeting point that evening only to find that this group of useless idiots hadn’t even managed to start a fire!

He had been exhausted and parched, worn down by half a day of trekking.

Even so, he had suppressed his temper and started the fire himself.

He had finally managed to get everything settled and lay down to rest, only for this mess to break out first thing in the morning. He truly felt like throwing in the towel and quitting.

As Shisan’s anger flared, everyone stopped moving.

Shisan was currently the backbone of the group. They tacitly assumed he would solve all their problems and act as the arbiter of justice.

The scrawny man, who had come out worse in the fight, was the first to complain. “Brother Shisan, we agreed to help each other and share resources. That can was part of our shared resources, right? I took a bit of the ‘communal’ food and he tried to kill me over it. This guy is too selfish. He has absolutely no sense of being part of a team.”

“You’re calling me selfish? That’s hilarious,” Ding Yao said, so choked with rage he could barely speak.

What made it even harder to swallow was that half the can was already in that bastard’s stomach. No matter how angry he got, he couldn’t get it back.

To think it was only the second day on the island and the canned food he’d spent so much money to get was already gone. How was he supposed to survive the coming days?

The more Ding Yao thought about it, the more he spiraled. He looked at the scrawny man with a gaze that suggested he wanted to eat him alive.

Seeing that the conflict was unresolved and likely to escalate, Jing Xueqin stepped forward. He pulled a can from his own bag and handed it to Ding Yao. “Alright, alright. You can have my can. Just stop being angry.”

With someone stepping in to play peacemaker and resolve the issue, the tension in the air eased slightly.

“If there’s a problem, let’s talk it out properly,” Shisan said, casting a grateful look at Jing Xueqin before turning back to the two men. “This is only the second day and this is already happening. If we can’t help each other on this island, I can guarantee that not one of the thirteen of us will survive thirty days!”

Ding Yao hesitated slightly as he reached for the can.

He knew perfectly well that by accepting it, he would inevitably lose the moral high ground in the eyes of the group.

But a moment later, he gritted his teeth and took it anyway.

To hell with public opinion. His only goal now was to survive thirty days on this island.

Once it was over and he had the prize money, he could live however he pleased.

With that thought, Ding Yao accepted the can with a clear conscience.

Naturally, he felt no guilt toward Jing Xueqin either. Everyone knew what was going on—the only reason he was playing the “good guy” by giving up his food was because their every move was being filmed by hidden cameras. The man was just building a public persona³ for himself.

Ding Yao felt nothing but disdain.

He tucked the can safely into his backpack and looked at Shisan. “Brother Shisan, you really need to set some rules. I don’t mind sharing dry rations as communal resources, even if I brought more than others. But for rare resources like canned meat, should those really be considered communal property?”

Translator’s Notes